The present invention relates to installation of a child safety seat, and in particular to a System, Method and Apparatus Adapted to Install a Child Safety Seat in a Vehicle.
The field of the invention pertains to the installation of child safety seats in vehicles. The National Safety Belt Coalition reports that experts estimated that 80% to 90% of child safety seats are installed and/or used incorrectly in automobiles. As a result, every year many children are needlessly injured or killed during otherwise minor vehicular accidents because of the incorrect installation of the child""s safety seat.
Belts are commonly employed in vehicles to secure a child""s safety seat to the supporting vehicle seat. While belts are effective for security, as noted above they usually suffer from the disadvantage of having unwanted slack from incorrect installation. Slack in a belt decreases the effectiveness of the belt""s ability to secure and retain the child safety seat in place. An incorrectly installed child safety seat can be more dangerous to the child than no safety seat at all.
The law in many jurisdictions requires that all young children be secured in a child safety seat while travelling in an automobile. In some jurisdictions, car rental companies are required to temporarily secure a child safety seat in a rented car when the renter has a young child. The seat must be belted down so as to prevent any movement of the child safety seat relative to the automobile seat on which it is mounted. This requires that the installer exert a high degree of force on the child safety seat as it is being strapped in. Unfortunately, even the best efforts of the installer often fail and the child safety seat still has a degree of movement in the event of an accident.
There have been attempts to reduce or eliminate the inherent problem of slack in belts for retaining child safety seats. These devices often come in the form of clamping means or tightening and adjusting means with a mechanical assembly that engages a portion of the strap or, alternatively, two separate portions of the strap. Many of these devices, however, require that at least one end of the strap be passed through the device after the device is attached to another portion of the strap.
Belt shortening devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,047,451; 6,081,976; 6,105,211; 6,241,174; 6,273,353; 6,279,847 and 4,604,773, herein incorporated by reference. These devices attach to a section of a belt and remove slack by winding the belt around a ratchet mechanism.
A belt tensioning device is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,772, herein incorporated by reference. This device is comprised of two pieces of plastic pivotally connected together, such that clamping the two pieces together will result in a short belt length.
Many devices commonly require that a loose end of the belt be routed through the device to enable winding of the belt by the device to effectuate shortening. As can be understood, the foregoing devices are unsuitable for shortening vehicle seat belts because the belts are not capable of being routed onto commonly available ratchet take-up mechanism due to the presence of bulky buckles, both male and female endings, present on the loose ends of the belts. Other devices permanently incorporate the ratchet take-up mechanism directly on the belt itself.
Other belt tightening devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,092,869 and 6,247,208, herein incorporated by reference. These devices are adapted to be attached to a belt at a point along its length to take up slack.
Another approach to installation of a child safety seat is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,408, incorporated herein by reference. This approach involves a device that sits over the child safety seat and applies downward pressure generated by a lever. The installer tightens the seat belt that passes through the child safety seat while the child safety seat is pressed into the car seat. This device is bulky and poor access to the belt buckle may result is an incorrect installation.
A seat belt gripping device for use with seat belts with lap and shoulder portions is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,579,561 and 5,845,372, herein incorporated by reference. Another seat belt gripping device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,902,015, herein incorporated by reference. These devices secure the lap belt portion and shoulder belt portion together after installation of the child safety seat. These devices maintain the tension present in the restraint system at the time they are installed.
A ratchet mechanism is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,296, herein incorporated by reference. This type of a tension device is commonly used to secure loads onto trucks or on top of automobiles.
A few examples of child safety seats are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,322,143; 6,237,999; 6,183,044; 5,842,737; 5,733,003; 5,462,333, each incorporated by reference herein.
In view of the foregoing, there is a demand for an apparatus and method for installing a child safety seat securely in relation to a vehicle. There is also a need for child safety seat installation methods and devices that are compact, inexpensive, easy to use, and can be used in a variety of vehicle types and vehicles models with a variety of child safety seat models.
An aspect of the present invention provides a method adapted to install a child safety seat in a vehicle by generating tension on a loose end of the restraint belt with a tension device.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a system adapted to install a child safety seat in a vehicle. A tension device is adapted to generate tension on a loose end of a restraint belt to firmly secure the child safety seat with respect to the vehicle.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a child safety seat installation device comprising a clamp to grip a restraint belt loose end and a tension device with a mechanical advantage greater than 1, wherein tension device adapted to generate tension on the restraint belt loose end to firmly secure the child safety seat with respect to the vehicle.